Friday, June 05, 2009

Feeling a little gassy

Stuck in that unmatchable hell which is waiting for a service call from a utility company. I know that it's a miserable rainy day, but I still did not plan on being stuck inside all afternoon. It's the feeling of being trapped, of not being able to leave, even if I don't want to.

I didn't go to the volunteer event this morning but heard from a friend that nobody showed up. At least I'd emailed the organizer last night so he'd know I was not going to go if it meant standing in the drizzle coughing. Instead, I went to the gym, came home and showered, and began my six hour apartment lock down. Six hours! I don't think it should be legal to give out six hour windows.

My frustration led me to call and check, and the dispatcher confirmed I'm next after the next. Another 30 minutes or so. Which will mean I'll serve at least 5 of my 6 hour sentence.

Here's the rub: this is all because my gas meter is broken. It has been, since I moved in - oh, 16 months ago? About a year ago, the company noticed that my reading was always zero, and so called me to set up an appointment to send someone over to fix it. He came, he looked, he was puzzled, he looked again, he confirmed that it was reading "00000" despite the inescapable fact that I do, truly, have gas when I turn on burners of my stove. But he was - too lazy? not in the mood? - in any event, suggested that rather than his replacing it, I just monitor it for a few more months and then call again.

Right.

So a few weeks ago I get a voice message from the same company, and I dutifully call back. The service rep can't figure out why anyone called me. Nothing in my file. She has no idea. So I finally suggest that maybe it's the non-functioning gas meter. Well, that's not in my file, but she says she'll send someone out anyway to check it out.

And that brings us to today, waiting. Sigh.

Note that this is the very same company who insisted, last summer, that I'd overpaid my account by several hundred dollars, and the refund check that they'd sent me was truly, truly, mine, despite my insistence that I would certainly know if I'd mistakenly written a check in that large an amount. The service rep suggested I just cash it and not question it.